Flight 800 conspiracy? Where's proof?

By Sylvia Adcock, Special to CNN

Updated 1:15 PM ET, Thu June 20, 2013

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TWA Flight 800 – Accident investigators said Wednesday, July 2, they would not re-open the probe of the mid-air explosion that brought down TWA 800 nearly 18 years ago on July 26, 1996, killing all aboard. The decision by the National Transportation Safety Board dashed the hopes of a documentary film team claiming to have uncovered "solid proof" that investigators erred in concluding it was an accident. Here, a section of the wing of TWA Flight 800, seen here a couple of days after the crash, floats in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, New York.

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TWA Flight 800 – A member of the U.S. Coast Guard pulls a piece of wreckage from the waters on July 18, 1996.

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TWA Flight 800 – Ron Dwyer pauses to compose himself on July 20, 1996, as he speaks about his 11-year-old daughter Larkyn Lynn Dwyer, who was on TWA Flight 800.

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TWA Flight 800 – A warning sign on the dunes alerts beach-goers to watch for debris washed ashore at Smith's Point, Long Island, New York, on July 25, 1996.

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TWA Flight 800 – A police officer stands guard as part of the plane is transported from a dock in Brooklyn, New York, on July 19, 1996.

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TWA Flight 800 – Wreckage of the front portion of the Boeing 747 aircraft is displayed in its reconstructed state on November 19, 1997, in Calverton, Long Island, New York.

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TWA Flight 800 – Parts of the aircraft's wing sit in the hangar on July 8, 1999, in Calverton, New York.

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TWA Flight 800 – The partially reconstructed fuselage of TWA Flight 800 is pulled out of a hangar in Calverton, New York, on September 14, 1999.

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TWA Flight 800 – Antonella Naglieri, whose relatives Giuseppe Mercurio and Anna D'Alessandro were killed in the crash, places a rose in the surf after a memorial service at Smith Point Park in Shirley, New York, on July 17, 2001.

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TWA Flight 800 – Joanne Festa touches the memorial wall commemorating the victims of TWA Flight 800 on July 16, 2006, at the Smith Point County Park in Shirley, New York.

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Sylvia Adcock: Conspiracy theorists have long sniffed around story of Flight 800 crash

It wasn't long after TWA Flight 800 exploded off the coast of Long Island on a warm July evening in 1996 that the conspiracy theorists emerged. Seventeen years later, they're still here.

I haven't seen a new documentary that purports to repudiate the conclusions of the National Transportation Safety Board, which ruled that the crash of the 747 headed for Paris was caused by a center fuel tank explosion likely ignited by faulty wiring. But I do know that -- despite all the media attention the filmmakers are getting -- their essential claim that a missile hit the plane is not new.

And neither are aircraft fuel tank explosions. In fact, they were considered enough of a danger that the Federal Aviation Administration has put in place new regulations to prevent such events. And the FAA, heavily lobbied by airlines and aircraft manufacturers who want to keep their costs low, does not enact new regulations without reason.

When I covered the four-year investigation into TWA Flight 800 for Newsday, I spent hundreds of hours interviewing investigators, scientists and experts; I walked around inside the center fuel tank of a Boeing 747 (yes, it's that big) at a plant in Seattle; and I continued to cover the aftermath of the NTSB's final report that culminated in an FAA rule to make airlines pump inert gas into fuel tanks to prevent explosions.

Sylvia Adcock

I remember being surprised when I first learned of fuel-tank explosions on aircraft, particularly those designed with air-conditioning units below the center tank. At first it seemed unbelievable. But when an aircraft's fuel tank is nearly empty, as is often the case with the center tank, the heat from the air-conditioning packs underneath combined with ambient temperatures can create, well, what seems like a bomb on board.

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NTSB: Design flaw doomed TWA 800

In 2000, the FAA compiled a list of 26 fuel-tank explosions dating back to 1959.

I also remember the day l learned that the system that tells pilots how much fuel remains includes electrical components located inside the tank. Although aircraft wiring is made to be strong and durable, it is also subject to the effects of aging and abrasion -- so much so that short circuits can occur. On July 17, 1996, the conditions -- a volatile fuel-air mix of vapors in the center fuel tank heated to the point of being explosive, a likely short circuit in fuel-gauge wiring and 230 people on board -- came together with a tragic result.

I can't speak to the motives of the former investigators who are calling for a renewed investigation. But it is important to note that while a poster from the film on epix.com trumpets, "inside investigators finally break their silence," one of the key investigators featured testified about the NTSB's failings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1999. It would seem that if he had something more pertinent to say he would have said it long ago.

As for the missile theory, its main proponents were those eyewitnesses who reported seeing a streak of light in the sky on the night of the crash. That streak has been explained as the still-airborne fuselage of the Boeing 747 after the nose of the plane broke off and fell to earth -- and debris recovery patterns confirm this scenario. Metallurgical evidence showed that the fuel tank, the main structural component between the wings, exploded from the inside, with no evidence of a puncture or outside entry.

The filmmakers say they have new radar evidence. I don't know why it hasn't surfaced before now, or how it will contradict the physical evidence that shows the fuel tank exploded from the inside. I do know that when the process turns to fault-finding in aviation accidents, there are many competing interests with a stake in the game -- the pilots' union, aircraft manufacturers and airlines, all with lawyers ready to battle their side.

When I covered aviation safety, it seemed that the NTSB was the only entity with no conflicts of interest. Even the media want a good story -- and what better story than a missile and cover-up? I imagine the same can be said of people who want to sell an idea for a documentary. Fuel-tank explosions and exposed wiring just aren't that sexy.

Conspiracy theories about TWA Flight 800 are a bit like 17-year cicadas. Except they seem to emerge a bit more often.